Sunday, December 16, 2012

Tom

Another bike for a Front Ranger - intended for a kind of odd dual-use purpose: bikepacking AND semi-freeride aggro hardtail. Yes, those purposes can be hard to reconcile - enter the adjustable travel fork and dropper post that can be swapped for a rigid one.

First, geometry:
-43.2cm/17" seat tube at an effective 73 degrees (it's curved for tire clearance) for a 31.6mm dropper post. I am going to get some tubing made so that I can do this with something a tad lighter (this seat tube is an .065x1.375" sleeve/plug machined to press-fit into an .035x1.375" straightgauge tube).
-59cm/23.2" effective toptube and 637mm front-center.
-70 degree head angle (or 69 in the longer-travel Talas setting) set up for a tapered steerer 95-120mm Fox Talas. Trail numbers in the high 80s to mid 90s depending on the setting (low for bikepacking, high for getting crazy at 30mph on Belcher).
-43cm chainstays, clearance for a 2.4 tire. S-bends as usual.
-Built specifically for XX1. More and more bikes I'm building are rolling this way. Front derailleurs will be totally dead once some mid-level groups with that kind of 1x range come out in the next year or two. Heck, even at ~$950 (the price I sell to group to my customers) it's really not that bad of a deal.